ugh -

[verbminx]

This was the third night in a row where I couldn't sleep for more than five hours. I've been up since 4AM - yes, I was good, I went to bed at 11PM, genuinely TIRED. Yesterday was wasted partly because I was so tired; today I can't sleep, but I can't function productively either. I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate this.

Hate.

I just cheered myself by watching a 2.5 hour documentary on Stanley Kubrick, though. Good ol' Stanley. I still can't watch The Shining but I love his other movies. & in some ways I find him a kindred spirit, in his perfectionism and obsessiveness and his unwillingness to deal with people he didn't want to deal with, decamping to the UK because he was irritated with Hollywood after his first great movie, going on to make a handful more that are pure genius.

Last night I watched Adaptation, and though I thought the last 20 minutes or so got a little crazy, I liked it much more than I had expected to. I'd recommend it to people. It isn't as wacky as Being John Malkovich, and it has wonderful characters (Laroche in particular - Chris Cooper earned that Oscar). & poor Susan Orlean got the John Malkovich treatment in this one!

All over and inbetween I've been writing zine articles, only I'm worried that my sleep deprivation is making them incoherent. I mean, MORE INCOHERENT THAN USUAL. I'm having a lot of "word searching" troubles today. Earlier, I could not on my life remember the word "scornful." I knew the emotional value of the word I was trying to summon, and I knew that it began with "sc-", but other than that, complete aphasia. "Sc----scandalous? no. scoundrel? no, that's not it. scanning? argh! scou -- scoh - oh, SCORNFUL. That's it." It's like you have to poke through a stiff sheet of vellum paper in your brain to get at the word you need, which you know perfectly well, and furthermore, KNOW that you know perfectly well. This is a symptom of my illness, but it's always worst when I'm tired. & it's depressing to me, because I generally have (and pride myself on having) a prodigious vocabulary. When you're sick you want to do puzzles, but if you're me you sure as hell don't attempt to do crossword puzzles.

I have a fever, and soon enough I will try to go to sleep again, but I'm thinking that since I don't feel well, I might throw some clothes on and drag myself out and see if I can pick up the most recent issues of Games and/or ReadyMade. The stores open at 9, and I need a bagle anyway.

Comments

[moonwalker.livejournal.com]

I hate "The Shining." I was subjected to it way too many times when it came out.

Strange you should talk about aphasia... I was having a weird work problem the other day. Steve has a lighthouse calendar, and I finally saw the July picture. I kept saying, "Oh what a pretty waterfall." And I could NOT for the life of me say "lighthouse." It kept coming out as "waterfall." Very weird. I think I must have been very tired.

Mary MMM

[amanda-mary.livejournal.com]

Susan Orlean was a good sport, wasn't she? Although, I have to admit, I rolled my eyes more than once at the (real) Susan when I saw her on an Oxygen Network special, detailing her recent wedding. It was one of the most ostentatious, Central Park West-y things I've ever seen! But, whiel I was agape, I guess I can understand the impetus to have that sort of fete if one has the money to do so ... .

[modpixie.livejournal.com]

oof. adaptation. i hated it for the film school snob reasons (there's one scene in there that is a direct rip -- line for line and shot for shot -- from the discreet charm of the bourgeoisie), as well as for "girl" reasons (the frigid bitch scene really, really put me off my feed, as did the lotte-in-a-cage sequence in malkovich). it aimed so high, but came down so low...

Re:

[verbminx.livejournal.com]

hmmm. yeah, i think those complaints are valid. what was the ripped scene? i haven't seen charm discrete, but belle de jour is one of my ab ab ab fave movies. (both bunuel! but you knew that.)

[modpixie.livejournal.com]

oooooooooh, belle du jour. catherine deneuve is so sexy and scary.

they ripped off the scene involving the third-world dictator that ends up being a dream from charm discrete. i want to say the scene in question was one of donald's at the end, but i am pretty sure it was actually the scene where her husband talks about how insane she is on the phone and she's listening in and crying...? i think...? i saw it in the theatre after it was out for a while and started speaking the dialouge along with the actors. after the movie some guy heard me and said "wow, you must bea a big fan!" yeah, but not of this movie!

[djymm.livejournal.com]

Can you ever truthfully say you have aphasia?

Vaguely related - "tersity' is a lovely-sounding word, while "logorrhea" just... eew.

Didn't think too much of the most recent ready-made, more high-concept than useful, though an article on cargo bikes was interesting.

Re:

[verbminx.livejournal.com]

yeah, i... i liked RM when they started out, because they had a lot of interesting, non-cheesey craft products. but they're turning into a boring design mag, and the thing is, there are already plenty of boring design mags out there, most of which are better than RM. comparatively few non-cheesey craft mags. i liked the bike with no high bar on it, although it was $500; my mom would be interested in something like that, but not for that price. the bike PROJECTS were dumb.

that was going to be part of my post, btw - that a person who really has aphasia probably wouldn't be able to come up with the word "aphasia" to describe it. they might call it "jogging" or "the flu" or something.

[djymm.livejournal.com]

Helping my sister study for a nursing exam I lurched about like a zombie and moaned "ataxia". Not the greatest mnemonic, necessarily, but it made for a good stress reliever.